US health officials want to make the COVID-19 vaccination more like the annual flu shot.
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach to future vaccination efforts, allowing most adults and children to get a shot once a year to protect against the mutated virus.
This means Americans don’t have to keep track of the number of shots received or the number of months since the last booster.
The proposal comes as boosters have become a hard sell. While more than 80% of the US population has had at least one dose of the vaccine, only 16% of eligible people received the latest boosters that were valid in August.
The FDA will ask a panel of outside vaccine experts to weigh in at a meeting Thursday. The agency is expected to consider the suggestions when deciding vaccine requirements for manufacturers.
In a document posted online, FDA scientists said many Americans now have “pre-existing immunity” against the coronavirus due to vaccination, infection or a combination of the two. That basic protection should be enough to switch to annual boosters against the latest strains in circulation and make the COVID-19 vaccination more like an annual flu shot, according to the agency.
For adults with weakened immune systems and young children, a two-dose combination may be needed for protection. FDA and vaccine company scientists will study vaccinations, infection rates and other data to decide who should get a single shot versus a two-dose series.
The FDA will also ask its panel to decide whether all vaccines should target the same strain. The move is needed to make shots interchangeable, eliminating the current complicated system of vaccinations and boosters.
The initial shots from Pfizer and Moderna – the so-called main series – target a strain of the virus that first appeared in 2020 and is quickly spreading around the world. An updated enhancer released last fall is also tweaked to target the already dominant omicron relatives.
Under the FDA’s proposal, the agency, independent experts and manufacturers would decide each year which strains to target in early summer, allowing a few months to produce and launch an updated picture before fall. That’s roughly the same approach used to select strains for the annual flu shot.
Ultimately, FDA officials said moving to an annual schedule would make it easier to promote future vaccination campaigns, which could increase vaccination rates nationwide.
The original two-dose COVID shot has provided strong protection against severe disease and death, regardless of the variant, but protection from milder infections is missing. Experts continue to debate whether the latest round of boosters improves protection, especially for younger and healthier Americans.
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